A royal snub.
Prince William does not want Prince Harry at his coronation, according to a Sunday Times report published Saturday to mark Harry’s 40th birthday in September.
The Duke of Cambridge, 42, is understood to have said he wants his coronation – which will take place after the death of his father King Charles III, 75 – to “look and feel different”, with one difference possibly being Harry’s absence from the ceremony.
Friends of William said that for now William does not want Harry, 39, to attend the coronation.
“They’re separated, which is terribly sad,” said one of the brothers’ closest friends.
Friends also said William and Harry had not spoken for almost two years.
After quitting his job as a senior royal and moving to California in 2020, Harry famously aired his family’s dirty laundry in his 2021 interview with Oprah with wife Meghan Markle, their Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan” and his tell-all memoir, “Spare.”
He is estranged from his brother as well as their father, who became monarch after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.
“The problem for the king and other members of the family is the fear that if they have a conversation with Harry, it will be mentioned in the second volume of Spare,” said one of Charles’ friends. “How do you regain trust? I don’t think Harry ever will.”
“But from conversations I’ve had with the king, I would never say their relationship is beyond repair,” the friend continued. “The king’s ability to forgive his son is intact. There are other members of the royal family who are much more opposed to Harry, that’s the problem.”
One of Harry’s closest friends also criticised the Duke of Sussex’s decision to attack his family.
“I can’t believe he’s stooped this low. It’s shockingly disloyal. Oprah, Netflix and then the book? Three mistakes and you’re out,” the friend said.
A former aide to Harry noted that the father-of-two appears to have no “purpose” in life since leaving the UK and falling out with his family.
“He loved the military and was very good at his job. His work with Invictus is great and the role of father was the most important to him, so maybe that’s enough for him,” the aide said.
“But everything else is a bit of a blur. I always thought he wanted more out of life. I can’t help but think he must be wondering, ‘Where do I go from here?'”
Last month, Harry spoke about his strained relationship with his family and blamed their reluctance to fight the press for their falling out.
“I think that’s certainly a central element,” Harry said in an interview with ITV’s Rebecca Barry.
“But it’s a difficult question to answer because everything I say about my family is met with a torrent of insults from the press,” he added.
Harry and his wife notably created tension with the royal family during their interview with Oprah, during which Markle, 43, claimed the royal family had expressed “concerns” to Harry about their son Archie’s potentially dark skin tone.
Harry confirmed his wife’s claim, telling Oprah: “I’ll never share that conversation, but at the time it was awkward. I was a little shocked.”
In “Spare,” Harry takes aim at Queen Consort Camilla, accusing his mother-in-law of asking her press secretary to “run him for a loop.”
He also referred to William as his “beloved brother and sworn enemy” and detailed the verbal and sometimes physical fights they had in the past.
